THE sight of being drawn against Brighton and Hove Albion in the Carling Cup would have sent a shudder down the spine of Liverpool FC supporters of a certain vintage.

Back in the mid-1980s, when the Anfield outfit were sweeping aside allcomers both home and abroad, twice the Seagulls clipped their wings in cup competition.

And the resurgent South Coast side are certain to provide a similarly tough test when Liverpool, smarting from their weekend embarrassment at Tottenham Hotspur, visit the new Amex Stadium in this evening’s third round tie.

Led by chairman Tony Bloom and manager Gus Poyet, Brighton are on the cusp of a new era after years in the doldrums, earning promotion from npower League One in impressive fashion last season and subsequently making a fine start to life in the Championship.

If Liverpool fans have been waiting long for their stadium situation to be resolved, spare a thought for their Brighton counterparts.

Evicted from their old Goldstone Ground in 1997, the Seagulls spent two seasons groundsharing at Gillingham before an 11-year stint at the deeply-unloved athletics stadium in the suburb of Withdean.

This summer, however, their impressive 22,300-capacity venue in Falmer was inaugurated, underlining a fresh chapter for the club with Liverpool the first showpiece visitors.

And Mark Lawrenson, a former favourite at both clubs, believes Kenny Dalglish’s men will face another severe test of their ambitions.

“Brighton are a team that are on an upward curve and everything that they are doing right now is aimed at making them stronger,” says Lawrenson.

“I know they lost at the weekend (1-0 at Leicester City), but you feel with them that they are on the up and up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they came close to or actually earned promotion to the Premier League this season.

“Poyet likes his team to play with pace and width, they play the game in the right way and they will give Liverpool a real footballing game.

“It won’t be the old high-pressure, long-ball approach that lower-league teams tend to have against top-flight opposition.

“Craig Mackail-Smith up front is not a six-foot giant and Brighton have midfield players going forward who will always look to get a goal.

“It’s fantastic the have a new stadium, but maybe it’s a bit too nice. The atmosphere will be great but it’s not a threatening place to go.

“Liverpool played a strong side against Exeter and I’m sure they’ll be taking this one seriously as well.”

Lawrenson has been impressed by the work done behind the scenes at Brighton under the guidance of chairman Bloom, a property investor and renowned poker player.

“Brighton have been great in the last few seasons,” he adds. “The key to their transformation has been the chairman, who has been fantastic.

“He has bought and built a stadium, and that’s what Brighton really, really needed.

“He has cleared the debt for Poyet, so there isn’t that millstone around the manager’s neck. The chairman has asked what has been needed to improve the team, and he’s allowed him to buy the players.”

Liverpool’s last meeting with Brighton saw them earn a 3-2 away win in an FA Cup fourth round replay after a 2-2 draw at Anfield in 1991, to set up the epic showdown with neighbours Everton in the next round.

Their only previous clash in the League Cup ended in a 4-0 home success for a Liverpool side in November 1985, player-manager Dalglish on target with Paul Walsh scoring a hat-trick.

But it’s the two showdowns earlier in the decade that live longest in the memory. Lawrenson was a member of the Liverpool team beaten 2-1 at home by Brighton in the FA Cup in February 1983 and then 2-0 against the same opposition in the same competition on the South Coast 11 months later.

“Brighton did us twice in the FA Cup in the 1980s,” recalls the former centre-back. “In the first game, Nealy (Phil Neal) missed a penalty at the Kop end that would have got us an equaliser.

“Then the year later we went down to Brighton on a Sunday afternoon on telly on a bog of a pitch.

“Graeme Souness did his hamstring after about half-an-hour and everything went downhill from there.

“In those days, we went everywhere by coach and there wasn’t a lot said as we drove up to London for a stop-off at the White House Hotel.

“Joe Fagan (then Liverpool manager) stood up and said ‘Right you lot, everybody in’ and he took us to the bar and bought us all a drink. He then addressed us and said ‘Right, you buggers, promise me that won’t happen again’.

“We went on to win the league, the League Cup and the European Cup that season. So clearly the talk worked!”